My wife, Angie, and I saw 2016: Obama’s America recently while in the Denver area. I hope that every citizen will take the time and be open-minded enough to see it, too. The movie producer is Gerald Molen, the producer of the Academy Award-winning Schindler’s List. The author and co-director is Dinesh D’Souza, an intellectual; a distinguished author and journalist; a conservative; and an honest man in every respect.

I have spent a lifetime in service to our country. I have known many who died in service to our country, and I almost lost my life, too. Spending more than six years as a prisoner of war gave me time to think about our country, with all of its blessings, and, yes, its flaws — and my responsibilities.

In my lifetime, we truly have been remarkable and exceptional. We have been a force for good throughout the world. We have led the way and helped remove dictators and tyrants, and we have sacrificed so much national blood and treasure in those causes. We have given millions the opportunities of freedom and independence. We, unlike any other nation, have come to the aid of those suffering in natural disasters.

I am proud of our country, the goodness of our history and our continuing efforts to correct our flaws.

President Obama is the antithesis of the America I have known — the America for which I have willingly accepted personal sacrifice; extreme challenges and hardships; and lost many friends doing the same thing.

Obama’s re-election obviously would mean a majority of the voters in this country have chosen to give away the freedom and opportunity for which countless thousands have sacrificed and paid the ultimate price. If he is re-elected, the blood of our demise as a vibrant, exceptional and generous nation will be on our hands, and the ghosts of those who sacrificed so much for us will be stirred.

Those who allow this by their own lethargy and those who vote for Obama will have chosen to steer our country toward darkness, unlike anything anyone living today has ever experienced.

It is time to grow up and vote for the founding principles of our country and to vote with intelligence, not emotion. Obama’s America will not be able to do the great things of the past that made us exceptional — the greatest force in history for freedom, economic growth, innovation and generosity. Obama’s vision of America is based on economic and social policies and philosophy that never have worked, but have been tried repeatedly in modern history and failed.

His re-election would be a disaster for us all, especially for our children and grandchildren. His re-election would be an insult, a crime and a tragedy to all of us – and those consequences, and the mentality behind them, have been in the spotlight recently at the Democratic National Convention, where lies and absurdities prevailed. I hope you took the time to watch the spectacle.

I think of our granddaughters, triplets, now almost 3 years old. I consider a vote for Obama an extremely abusive act toward those little girls, one that I will not take lightly. We Americans have always passed along a country that is better, more prosperous, more noble and more generous; economically and militarily stronger; a country more moral and rational; and a country more willing to lead and sacrifice for freedom, and the freedom others deserve, than we inherited.

Voting for Obama is a vote to abandon our history, our heritage, our character, our obligations and our future. I am reminded of our Founding Fathers, of the sacrifices of so many which made my America possible, and how such a vote would do great harm to those adorable little granddaughters and my country. My tolerance for Obama supporters will cease.

I recently received some thoughts from a dear and courageous old friend from our difficult days in Hanoi, who, like me, was watching the Democratic National Convention. I agree with him totally and wanted to share his heartfelt thoughts:

“If those folks really do represent half or more of the electorate, then this certainly is not the America I grew up in — as a poor kid, with an opportunity to better myself, through my own intelligence and hard work. It is a socialist/communist country that will rapidly kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, to soon thereafter become perhaps the largest poverty-stricken, Third World country on the planet!

“If that is my future, then I resent it and I’m offended by it (for all the good that will do ...). Anyone who is eligible to vote and doesn’t do so in November will absolutely deserve the government their inaction secures for us all! For my part, however, having lived in a communist prison for nearly six-and-one-half years, I will resist, in every way possible, with all means at my disposal, until my dying breath!”

To that, I say amen, and God bless you!

This election is too important. Those who would vote for Obama want the government to run our lives; they wish for the producers in our country to support the takers and looters who contribute little to nothing; they revel in envy and class warfare (something that is foreign to me). If you watched the convention speakers, you have seen them denigrating the country I love; the religion I grew up with; the hard work, the traditions and history I treasure; the independence and freedom that have been America; and the honor of those who sacrificed so much for us.

This is a destructive crowd that is seemingly — and maybe emotionally and immaturely — hell-bent on destroying the country I love. I have had it.

Please see the movie 2016. Share this with friends, family and loved ones. Those among you who disagree with me, take a chance on enlightenment and see the movie. If you have not read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, you should. Written in 1957, she describes an America where the “takers” (those expecting the producers and government to give them everything, to share the profits of their endeavors) demand more and more and the bureaucrats and politicians comply — and America descends into darkness.

I heard interviews with Democratic delegates Wednesday night of the DNC saying profit should be outlawed. You will be amazed at how accurately Atlas Shrugged reflects where we are heading tomorrow if Obama is re-elected. We must defeat Obama, and, I say again, my tolerance for his supporters has ceased to exist, as likely will a few friendships. But, that is OK.

Wake up, America. It is almost too late.

• Swindle — a retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel — is a member of the board of directors of Citizens Against Government Waste, and has been active in veterans affairs, conservative politics and public service for more than 30 years. He has served as assistant secretary of commerce in the Reagan administration; as Georgia state director of the Farmers Home Administration; and as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission from December 1997 to June 2005. He lives in Alexandria, Va.